 Photo supplied | A young cassowary was hit by a vehicle as it was crossing the Tully Mission Beach road with its father and two siblings early yesterday morning 24 Nov. The driver of the vehicle did not stop or report the incident. Another driver came across the heart rending scene of the male cassowary standing over his dead chick. This death brings the shocking toll of cassowaries killed on our regions roads this year to at least 16. The grotesque photo below is of a subject that is becoming way too familiar with no action being taken. |
| Despite numerous calls and emails from Terrain, the Main Roads representative has not responded to requests to progress the outcomes of a Cassowary Vehicle Strike workshop held on September 11. Nor has there been any response to requests Main Roads be represented at the Cassowary Recovery Team meeting next Tuesday despite the workshop they participated in being a major agenda item. The research has been done, we know where the cassowaries are being killed and why, solutions have been suggested, the technology is available. Solutions may even be relatively inexpensive. |  Photo Ingrid Marker |
Cassowaries are at the top of the list of reasons visitors are attracted to Mission Beach. As a major tourism asset and tourism being the main economy for Mission Beach, the benefits of keeping cassowaries alive far outweigh the cost of traffic management solutions.
Each death wrenches the heart of a community that cares about cassowaries. There is growing frustration and anger of the inaction from all levels of government.
There is a simple solution;
Appropriate traffic management to slow the traffic at the known cassowary road crossings such as where this latest death happened.
Why are all the governments ignoring this carnage of our cassowaries on their roads?
We can only hope for the best that an anticipated increase of traffic at Mission Beach during the end of the year holiday period does not increase the already unacceptable number of cassowaries that have died on local roads in 2015.
Each death wrenches the heart of a community that cares about cassowaries. There is growing frustration and anger of the inaction from all levels of government.
There is a simple solution;
Appropriate traffic management to slow the traffic at the known cassowary road crossings such as where this latest death happened.
Why are all the governments ignoring this carnage of our cassowaries on their roads?
We can only hope for the best that an anticipated increase of traffic at Mission Beach during the end of the year holiday period does not increase the already unacceptable number of cassowaries that have died on local roads in 2015.
Contact;
Liz Gallie 0414 402315 or 07 4068 7315
missionbeachcassowaries@gmail.com
Threatened Species Commissioner's facebook post re cassowary death Nov 4
Mission Beach Cassowaries report on Vehicle Strike workshop
Traffic biggest risk to cassowaries - Terrain workshop
See comments on Mission Beach Cassowaries facebook
Contact;
Liz Gallie 0414 402315 or 07 4068 7315
missionbeachcassowaries@gmail.com
Threatened Species Commissioner's facebook post re cassowary death Nov 4
Mission Beach Cassowaries report on Vehicle Strike workshop
Traffic biggest risk to cassowaries - Terrain workshop
See comments on Mission Beach Cassowaries facebook
Photos from three of the road kill incidences this year.
